Steven Isserlis, cello / Connie Shih, piano

Steven Isserlis CBE is a distinguished British cellist with a global reputation as a soloist, chamber musician, educator, author, and broadcaster. He performs with world-class orchestras, from period to modern ensembles, and has given numerous world premieres, including works by Sir John Tavener, Thomas Adès, György Kurtág, and many others. 

Isserlis’ extensive discography, which has earned numerous awards, includes the complete J.S. Bach Cello Suites (Gramophone Instrumental Album of the Year), Beethoven’s complete works for cello and piano, and the Brahms Double Concerto with Joshua Bell. His Grammy-nominated recordings include Haydn and Martinů. 

A passionate author, Isserlis’ latest book is a critically acclaimed companion to the Bach Cello Suites. His children’s books on music are among the most popular in the genre, translated into many languages. He has also authored a commentary on Schumann’s Advice for Young Musicians. As a broadcaster, Isserlis has presented in-depth BBC Radio documentaries on Robert Schumann and Harpo Marx. 

As a musical curator, Isserlis has programmed innovative series for prestigious venues such as London’s Wigmore Hall and New York’s 92nd Street Y. He has also directed orchestras from the cello, including the Luzerner Sinfonieorchester in 2019 during Radu Lupu’s final public performance. 

Isserlis was appointed a CBE by Queen Elizabeth II in 1998 for his contributions to music and has received international honors, including the Piatigorsky Prize and the Glashütte Original Music Festival Award. He has been Artistic Director of the International Musicians Seminar, Prussia Cove, since 1997. 

He plays the 1726 ‘Marquis de Corberon’ Stradivarius, on loan from the Royal Academy of Music. 

To learn more about Steven Isserlis, please visit his website.

Canadian pianist Connie Shih is widely celebrated as an artist of exceptional sensitivity and depth. Born in Vancouver, she began studying the piano at the age of five as the youngest of three gifted sisters. At nine, she made her orchestral debut performing Mendelssohn’s First Piano Concerto with the Seattle Symphony Orchestra. In 1993, she received the Sylva Gelber Prize as the most outstanding classical artist in Canada under the age of thirty.

As a soloist, Shih has appeared with major orchestras across Canada, the US, and Europe, and has given recitals throughout North America, Europe, and Asia, including in Iceland, England, Spain, Italy, Germany, Japan, and China. Together with her duo partner, cellist Steven Isserlis, she performs regularly to critical acclaim on the world’s leading stages. Her chamber-music engagements have taken her to Wigmore Hall, Carnegie Hall, the Bath Music Festival, Aldeburgh, Cheltenham, Weill Hall (New York), Verbier, Lucerne, and the Kronberg Festival. She has collaborated with distinguished artists such as Sir Simon Keenlyside, Joshua Bell, Maxim Vengerov, Tabea Zimmermann, Manuel Fischer-Dieskau, and Isabelle Faust.

Shih’s performances are frequently broadcast on major radio and television networks including CBC (Canada), BBC (UK), and SWR, NDR, and WDR (Germany), as well as other outlets throughout North America, Europe, and Asia. She has served on the faculties of the Hochschule für Musik Mainz and the Hochschule für Musik Freiburg, and since 2022 has been Professor of Piano and Piano Chamber Music at the Salzburg Mozarteum. She has also given masterclasses at leading music institutes and has been a lecturer at the Casalmaggiore International Festival in Italy and Musiktage am Rhein. This summer, she joins the faculty of the Mozarteum Summer Academy.

At age twelve, Shih became the youngest protégé of her mentor, György Sebök. She later continued her studies at the Curtis Institute of Music in Philadelphia with Claude Frank, himself a protégé of Arthur Schnabel, and subsequently pursued further studies in Europe with Fou Ts’ong.

To learn more about Connie Shih, visit her website.